SpaceX, Virgin Orbit and Ferrari join ESA-NASA Advanced Manufacturing event

Confirmed speakers at next month’s ESA-NASA 1st International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing for Air, Space and Land Transportation include leading technologists from Airbus, Boeing, SpaceX, Virgin Orbit and Ferrari’s Formula 1 team. Registration is now open for the four-day online event, which will include more than 185 speakers from the scientific and engineering communities. Close-up X-ray imaging of Read More

ASTRA’s Demonstration Launches From SLC-46 But Has An In-Flight Failure. All Payloads Are Lost!

Sadly on ASTRA's 3rd attempt from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station SLC-46 at 3:00 PM EDT 2-10-22 for the first demonstration mission ELaNa-41 with NASA liftoff was successfully but an in-flight failure caused the rocket to not reach orbit and all payloads on board were lost! The two previous scrubs was an issue with a Read More

SpaceX – Geomagnetic storm and recently deployed Starlink satellites

On Thursday, February 3 at 1:13 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Falcon 9’s second stage deployed the satellites into their intended orbit, with a perigee of approximately 210 kilometers above Earth, and each satellite achieved controlled flight. Read More

ASTRA Scrubs ELaNa 41 Rocket Launch carrying four NASA Venture Class CubeSats

Seconds Before Launch 2-7-2022! ASTRA scrubbed their 2nd launch attempt a demonstration mission for NASA just as the five Delphin kerosene engines ignited briefly due to what the company is reporting as a minor telemetry issue. On Saturday February 5th ASTRA scrubbed the launch attempt due to a radar system issue with the United States Read More

Space repairs in 360° Cosmic Kiss – with video

Scientist, engineer, test subject and tradesperson – astronauts in orbit wear many different hats. In this 360° timelapse, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer works to repair a faulty valve behind EXPRESS-Rack 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brq9nTofsJw Water On-Off Valve 8 (WOOV-8), along with WOOV-6 and WOOV-7, determines whether the cooling water of Europe’s Columbus module flows through, or bypasses, Read More

ESA tests marine plastic detection in ocean wave facility

Could satellites be able to help track and map the marine plastic waste befouling our oceans? Research teams from across Europe returned to a Netherlands-based ocean wave test facility to try and detect floating plastic. Using a suite of microwave and optical instruments, the researchers are assessing if orbital monitoring of plastic might be practical Read More

ESA: UK innovation helps to fuel European space ambition

The UK’s strong entrepreneurial mindset is helping Europe unleash the huge potential of space to tackle urgent societal and environmental challenges, according to Elodie Viau, Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications at ESA. The agency is collaborating with the UK to foster commercial innovation, enable next-generation connectivity, and support the development of satellite-enabled products and Read More

NASA Provides Updated ISS Transition Plan – with video

This week, we delivered an updated International Space Station Transition Report, detailing goals for the next decade of space station operations. Currently, NASA’s research and development activities aboard are advancing the technologies and procedures that will be necessary to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon and the first humans Read More

ENAIRE, the first organisation to be certified to design flight procedures

The company, which was already providing this service, is adapting to the new European law that require this certificationENAIRE becomes the first organisation certified to provide this service in SpainENAIRE is also certified in five more air navigation services: ATS (air traffic), AIS (aeronautical information), CNS (communications, navigation and surveillance), ATFM (air traffic flow management) Read More